Crypto market in red, here are the reasons- The Cryptonomist

The crypto market continues with its price swings, registering a dump in the last 24 hours after a small bullish trend in the last 7 days, following the week’s news. 

Here’s how Coinbase’s letter to shareholders, sanctions to Tornado Cash and more have affected the cryptocurrency market. 

Crypto market in the red in the last 24 hours, but bullish in the last 7 days

Crypto price swings are now a certainty. Taking Bitcoin (BTC) as a reference, its price at the time of writing is $24,000 and has recorded a last 24-hour dump of 2.4% and a 3% pump over the last 7 days. 

It is also followed by Ethereum (ETH) with its current price of $1,895, which is down 1% in the last 24 hours but up 14% in the last week. 

The same thing, albeit with different percentages, occurred for Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and others. 

A trend that has been somewhat influenced by this week’s news regarding the overall crypto market.

Crypto market: prices and news of the week, the case of Coinbase

Just a couple of days ago, Coinbase, the publicly traded crypto-trading platform, released its second-quarter earnings, along with a letter to shareholders warning that the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be investigating some of its services, such as its staking programs. 

Coinbase itself, the week before had also announced that it had integrated the ability for investors to stake Ethereum on its platform, with a 5% return on ETH held in the wallet. Something that will also be possible with other cryptocurrencies such as Solana, Polkadot, Cosmos, Tezos, Celo and others. 

Moreover, exactly 7 days ago, Coinbase announced its collaboration with BlackRock, which will allow institutional clients to invest in crypto. Within a few days, Coinbase’s (COIN) shares also had a 26% price pump. 

Tornado Cash: from OFAC sanctions to celebrity scams

Other contrasting news of the week concerns Tornado Cash, the crypto-mixer that has made it onto the blacklist of the US Treasury Department for allegedly laundering more than $7 billion in crypto. 

Specifically, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also reportedly banned some of the Ethereum wallet addresses associated with the use of Tornado Cash, placing them on the “Specially Designated Nationals List”. Essentially, anyone interacting with these wallet addresses could face criminal penalties. 

For this reason some anonymous user decided to scam some celebrities by sending them small amounts of ETH precisely from a Tornado Cash address. 

The troll involved Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, TV host Jimmy Fallon, clothing brand Puma and even a wallet set up for donations to Ukraine, according to Etherscan. 

Not only that, even artist Beeple and more mainstream celebrities such as comedian Dave Chappelle received 0.1 ETH from Tornado Cash. 

The idea for the scam is said to have originated on Twitter in a post earlier in the week that, in the following days, also published screenshots of the transactions on the chain.